14-man Cork Con oust champions Terenure to secure AIL glory

 Cork Constitution 33 

Terenure College 22 

CORK CONSTITUTION defied the odds to defeat defending champions Terenure College and claim their first Energia All Ireland League Men’s title in five years at Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

The 2019 champions, losing semi-finalists in the two previous seasons, overcame the loss of forward lynchpin John Forde to a 19th minute red card and were reduced even further by yellow cards to Niall Kenneally and Sean Duffy early in the second half.

They found the resilience to not only hang onto an early 10-0 lead before Forde’s dismissal but keep the scoreboard ticking over through the goal-kicking of fly-half and man of the match James Taylor and tries from hookers Billy Scannell and his replacement Danny Sheahan to score a famous finals victory.

Full-back Rob Hedderman had drawn first blood with a sixth-minute try, converted by Taylor, who added a penalty 12 minutes later to hand Cork Con a 10-0 first-quarter lead.

Then came Forde’s dismissal, a straight red card for shoulder to head contact on Terenure flanker Adam Melia on 19 minutes, Aran Egan kicking a penalty for the 2023 title winners soon after.

Despite the absence of Forde in the second row, Cork Con scored an improbable maul try on 28 minutes, Taylor again adding the extras on a day when he was perfect off the tee with three conversions and four penalties.

Terenure hit back before the break when Jordan Coghlan powered over, Egan’s conversion closing the gap to 17-10 at the break, before which Kenneally was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate trip.

When Egan scored a try against 12-man Cork Con shortly after the break following Duffy’s yellow card, a first successful title defence since the Shannon side of the mid-2000s looked a safe bet. Yet two more Taylor penalties kept Con’s noses in front and when Terenure full-back Adam LaGrue scored a converted try on 55 minutes it still left the Dubliners trailing, 23-22.

And it was Cork Con who pulled away, another Taylor penalty on 61 minutes before their pack once again turned up trumps, delivering Sheahan’s maul on 72 minutes before the fly-half kicked two more points to seal a remarkable victory.

TERENURE COLLEGE: A La Grue; C Phillips, S Berman, P Sylvester, C Adams; A Egan, A Bennie; C Classon (B Howard, 62), L Vaughan, A Tuite (C O’Donnell 31); H Brewer – captain, M Caffrey (M O’Reilly, 52); A Melia, L Clohessy (J White, 27), J Coghlan.

Replacements not used: M Russell, C McKeon, Y Fernandez Vilar, B Galvin.

CORK CONSTITUTION: R Hedderman (R Jermyn, 56); D Hurley, H O’Riordan, N Kenneally, M Bowen; J Taylor, A Maher (L Khan, 65); A Heaney (B Quinlan 56-75), B Scannell (D Sheahan, 56), L Masters (C Connolly, 56); S Duffy (E Quilter, 36-40; Lamarque D’Arruzat, 56), J Forde; J Kelleher, R O’Sullivan (E Quilter, 56), D Hyland – captain.

Yellow card: N Kenneally 39-49, S Duffy 44-54 Red card: J Forde 19 mins Referee: Andrew Cole (IRFU) Learn more